Local history: Girls lined up to see pop star Shaun Cassidy at Akron store in 1979
“We want Shaun! We want Shaun! We want Shaun! We want Shaun!”
The high-pitched chant grew insistent.
More than 2,000 girls and a handful of confused-looking parents crowded Grapevine Records & Tapes in 1979 for a glimpse of pop star Shaun Cassidy during an in-store appearance at Westgate Plaza in Akron.
The event was scheduled for 3:30 p.m. Aug. 28, but young fans began to arrive before 6:30 a.m. at 1688 W. Market St. in Wallhaven. When the doors opened at 10, the crowd filled the 9,000-square-foot store and then formed a line that stretched the length of the shopping center.
“We want Shaun! We want Shaun! We want Shaun! We want Shaun!”
Cassidy, 20, was an actor, singer and teen idol who had graced the covers of Tiger Beat, 16 Magazine, People and Dynamite in the 1970s. With a lean physique, hazel eyes and feathered-back, shoulder-length hair, he was considered by schoolgirls to be, in the lingo of the day, “a total fox” not to mention “a total babe.”
As a singer, he had sold more than 7 million records and released such hits as “That’s Rock ’n’ Roll,” “Da Doo Ron Ron,” “Hey Deanie” and “Do You Believe in Magic.” As an actor, he starred opposite Parker Stevenson in “The Hardy Boys” from 1977 to 1979 on ABC-TV.
Entertainment was his family business. A son of Oscar winner Shirley Jones and Tony winner Jack Cassidy, Shaun was the half brother of another teen icon, David Cassidy, who had starred with Jones in “The Partridge Family” on ABC in the early 1970s.
Shaun Cassidy visited Grapevine in 1979
The Grapevine appearance was scheduled to promote Shaun Cassidy’s fourth Warner Bros. album, “Room Service,” before he headlined a concert that night at Blossom Music Center.
Akron police officers valiantly maintained order at the crowded store. Girls wore Cassidy T-shirts, bought Cassidy albums, sang Cassidy songs and held Cassidy posters.
“We want Shaun! We want Shaun! We want Shaun! We want Shaun!”
Packed like sardines, the fans groaned in unison when a store official made an announcement at 3:20 p.m. over the loudspeakers: “Shaun has just called and told us he will be here in 20 minutes.”
Anticipation filled the air. Bodies pressed together uncomfortably. Gee, it was warm. The girls groaned again at 4 p.m. when an official announced another 20-minute delay. Oh, noooooo!
“We want Shaun! We want Shaun! We want Shaun! We want Shaun!”
Some kids had been waiting for 10 hours. How much longer would it be?
“Then about 4:30 and without any apparent indication, there was frantic stirring in the crowd, the ‘We want Shaun!’ chant reached a deafening crescendo and the eyes of the young people became wide and wet with panicky anticipation,” Beacon Journal reporter Mark Faris wrote.
“They knew he was there. Nobody had to say anything, they could sense it.
“They all could. And they were right.”
Girls shrieked at the top of their lungs when Cassidy arrived with his entourage at the back of the room. The teen idol smiled and waved as the young fans lost their minds.
Wearing a leather jacket, blue-striped shirt, blue jeans and cowboy boots, Cassidy climbed over a record rack to reach the long table where he would sign autographs. Flashbulbs exploded while quivering girls took pictures with Kodak Instamatic cameras.
When Cassidy doffed his jacket to reveal a tank top, the crowd nearly spontaneously combusted. He put on a Grapevine T-shirt, took a seat in a folding chair and began to greet fans.
Even if he had arrived on time, he probably couldn’t have accommodated everyone. Cassidy signed autographs for nearly an hour, scribbling his name for about 1,000 people. While some girls were disappointed not to leave with a personal souvenir, most seemed giddy just to have glimpsed the golden god in person.
Rainy show at Blossom Music Center
The chanting resumed a few hours later
“We want Shaun! We want Shaun! We want Shaun! We want Shaun!”
You-know-who headlined an 8 p.m. show at Blossom with Fandango as the opening act. Tickets cost $9 for pavilion and $7 for lawn — roughly $37 and $29 today. Total attendance was estimated at 5,000 with the pavilion sold out. Unfortunately, it rained cats and dogs that night.
Fans screamed as Cassidy took the stage at 9:30 p.m., wearing a windbreaker over skintight pants.
“Shaun was evoking absolute shrieking delirium from his legion of awkward-age disciples by performing such relatively undemanding acts as smiling, breathing [and] waving an arm,” Faris wrote.
When the singer removed his jacket to reveal a blue-striped tank top, the pavilion quaked.
Cassidy’s 75-minute set included “That’s Rock ’n’ Roll” and “Hey Deanie,” both written by Cleveland’s Eric Carmen, as well as covers of “Da Doo Ron Ron” by The Crystals, “You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling” by The Righteous Brothers and “Slow Down” by The Beatles. He also sang his own compositions, including “Walk Away,” “She’s Right” and “Are You Afraid of Me?”
Despite the persistent rain, the audience went home in a sunny mood. As Faris noted, the Grapevine appearance and Blossom concert were like “big slumber parties gone wild.”
A lot of young hearts were broken, though, when Cassidy, 21, married his longtime girlfriend, Ann Pennington, a model, on Dec. 1, 1979.
With the faint echo of girls screaming, Cassidy released his final studio album, “Wasp,” in 1980. It did not make the charts.
Concert is sold out at Kent Stage
That was some time ago.
Cassidy is now 64 years old, thrice married, the father of eight.
In the 1980s and 1990s, he focused on live theater, appearing on Broadway with his brother David in “Blood Brothers.”
He has since reinvented himself as a television writer and producer, creating such works as “American Gothic,” “Roar,” “Cover Me,” “Cold Case,” “Invasion,” “Ruby & The Rockits” and “New Amsterdam.”
And he still headlines concerts, strumming a guitar, playing piano, telling stories and singing songs. Da doo ron ron ron. Da doo ron ron.
Guess who’s coming back to Ohio?
Shaun Cassidy will perform a sold-out concert June 11 at the Kent Stage. Those girls from 1979 are in their 50s and 60s now, and they have snapped up every single ticket in the 640-seat theater.
Let the chanting begin.
“We want Shaun! We want Shaun! We want Shaun! We want Shaun!”
Mark J. Price can be reached at [email protected]
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This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Girls lined up to see Shaun Cassidy at Akron record store in 1979
